Marketing is a crucial part of the alcohol supply chain. To maintain market share, companies invest heavily in marketing and promotion. To increase market share, advertising and promotion are used to encourage consumers to switch brands. Marketing creates brands and brand image. Many bars (e.g., sports bars), taverns, brew pubs, and restaurants place multiple televisions throughout their establishment to broadcast sporting events such as NCAA and NFL football,
NCAA and NBA basketball, Major League baseball, PGA golf, soccer matches, boxing matches, NASCAR auto races, etc. Alcohol producers as well as bars (e.g., sports bars), taverns, brew pubs, and restaurants also promote alcohol consumption tied to various holidays, such as Cinco De Mayo, St. Patrick's Day, New Year's Eve, Fourth of July, etc. The broadcast content displayed on the televisions situated in bars (e.g., sports bars), taverns, brew pubs, and restaurants attracts patrons to the establishment and these patrons typically purchase food and drink from the establishment during the course of watching the broadcast content. Thus, televisions serve to increase the food and beverage revenue generated by the establishment. However, conventional forms of brand promotion in bars (e.g., sports bars), taverns, brew pubs, and restaurants cannot offer brand advertisers sustained exposure to consumers for the duration of the broadcast content (e.g., a sporting event) displayed on the televisions.
For instance, current methods of advertising include point-of-sale advertising delivered by commercials broadcast on the televisions during “commercial” or “television” time outs. These commercials aired during the commercial breaks of a broadcast sporting event are designed to drive sales of a particular brand of alcoholic beverage. However, broadcast commercial advertisements are inefficient in driving sales because patrons of bars (e.g., sports bars), taverns, brew pubs, and restaurants commonly avert their eyes from the television during the commercial breaks, such as to use the restroom, to order food, and/or to speak with their friends.
Additionally, bars, taverns, brew pubs, and restaurants commonly utilize other forms of advertisements, but none of them are optimally placed to deliver a sustained advertising message. For example, drink coasters that contain advertising for a particular brand of beverage (e.g., a product name and/or logo for an alcoholic beverage) are delivered by the wait staff after the consumer has selected a beverage from the menu. Additionally, the advertising content on the coaster is obstructed when the customer places a drink on the coaster. Accordingly, coasters may be of limited efficacy in driving sales of the particular brand of beverage advertised on the coaster. Furthermore, exclusivity for a particular brand is generally not feasible with drink coaster advertising.
Walls signs are another form of advertising in bars, taverns, brew pubs, and restaurants. Wall signs (e.g., neon signs and posters) in a commercial establishment are not typically located with sufficient proximity to the televisions to be noticed by customers watching broadcast content (e.g., a sporting event) on the television. Additionally, many commercial establishments utilize dim lighting for ambiance and/or to aid in viewing the broadcast content on the televisions, which renders the wall signs ineffective in driving sales of the products advertised on the wall signs. Furthermore, many establishments may not utilize wall signs because they clash with interior decor and/or because the internal decor is not conducive to hanging wall signs. Furthermore, commercial establishments that utilize neon signs to advertise often display multiple neon signs. Accordingly, neon signs tend to become “background noise” for consumers such that no single neon sign stands out from the group of neon signs. Additionally, generally, no single brand can obtain exclusivity in advertising with neon signs in a commercial establishment.
Additionally, brand and/or product advertising on a server's shirt may not be possible at commercial establishments that require their employees to dress in a specific manner (e.g., adhere to a particular dress code). Other commercial establishments may permit their servers to choose what they wear as long as it falls within their general dress code guidelines, and therefore there is no guarantee that the servers will wear a shirt or other item of clothing bearing a specific brand.
Furthermore, brand advertising on a server's clothing is subject to competition between brands.
Furthermore, commercial establishments generally include menus and other tabletop displays (e.g., “table talkers” or “table tents”) advertising particular brands or special promotions. However, menus usually display products by name and price without any distinctive logo, advertising, or promotional or image messaging. Thus, there is nothing in the menu that compels a consumer to select a product he/she has never tried before. Additionally, “table talkers” or “table tents” are typically small, relatively hard to see where more than one person is sitting at a table, and it is difficult for a brand to secure exclusivity.